Chris Gelardi

Push from Saudis, Israel helped move Trump to attack Iran President Trump launched a wide-ranging attack on Iran after weeks-long lobbying by an unusual pair of U.S. allies in the Middle East: Israel and Saudi Arabia.

"Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman made multiple private calls to Trump over the past month advocating a US attack [on Iran], despite his public support for a diplomatic solution..[he + brother Khalid bin Salman] warned about downsides of not attacking"
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

congress sounds cool i wish it was real

Exclusive: Prior to Iran attacks, CIA assessed Khamenei would be replaced by hardline IRGC elements if killed, sources say In the run-up to the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Saturday, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency assessed that even if Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the operation, he would likely be replaced by hardline figures from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), two sources briefed on the intelligence said.

Exclusive: Prior to Iran attacks, CIA assessed Khamenei would be replaced by hardline IRGC elements if killed, sources say reut.rs/4l9SCAs

FBI investigating Mississippi Prison Death Involving Guards Melvin Cancer was killed by guards beating him inside the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility, a new report shows.

Mississippi prison officials told Mary Anderson her uncle died of a heart attack while incarcerated. A year later, the FBI is investigating his death as a homicide. He was reportedly beaten to death by prison guards. My latest for @themarshallproject.org

www.themarshallproject.org/2026/02/24/m...

Fantastic reporting from @chrisgelardi.bsky.social who easily found a former New York prison chef accused of sexual assault, after the state insisted in legal filings that he did not exist.

U.S. Sent a Rescue Plane for Boat Strike Survivors. It Took 45 Hours to Arrive. In seas that could kill a person within an hour, it took nearly two days for a rescue plane to arrive.

EXCLUSIVE: U.S. Sent a Rescue Plane for Boat Strike Survivors. It Took 45 Hours to Arrive.

In seas that could kill a person within an hour, it took nearly two days for a rescue plane to arrive.

New from @airwars.bsky.social and @theintercept.com

theintercept.com/2026/02/17/b...

The U.S. Has Killed More than 100 People in Boat Strikes. We’re Tracking Them All. The Intercept is keeping count of all publicly declared U.S. attacks on boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean and the number of civilians killed.

The U.S. conducted more extrajudicial killings in the Eastern Pacific today

We’re tracking the civilian toll @theintercept.com

theintercept.com/2025/11/17/t...

Staff at Youth Prison Recount Lockdowns, Turmoil, 24-Hour Shifts A yearslong staffing crisis at state-run facilities has taken its toll on incarcerated kids and the workers who watch over them.

Do you work at an OCFS secure or limited secure facility? Do you have a loved one incarcerated in one of the facilties? Were you incarcerated yourself?

New York Focus wants to hear from you. Email reporter Chris Gelardi at chris@nysfocus.com or message him on Signal at @cgelardi.42.

and gaza

Staff at Youth Prison Recount Lockdowns, Turmoil, 24-Hour Shifts A yearslong staffing crisis at state-run facilities has taken its toll on incarcerated kids and the workers who watch over them.

New York's youth prisons are a disaster. Kids locked in solitary for days at a time. Staff forced to work 24-plus-hour shifts. Crisis after crisis.

"I'm a human rights violator," one whistleblower told me.

They recounted the nightmare at one facility:
nysfocus.com/2026/02/04/o...

Hochul hopped on the anti-ICE train with some new, two-pronged legislation.

One proposal, to ban jail contracts, would be big.

The other... maybe not so much.

I've said it before: 287(g) is the red herring of local ICE collaboration.

From @liv-veazey.bsky.social and @sammellins.bsky.social:

Hochul Proposed Banning ICE Collaboration Contracts The bill would dissolve contracts that allow federal immigration authorities to use county jails, but would leave more informal collaboration with local…

nysfocus.com/2026/01/31/h...

Hochul hopped on the anti-ICE train with some new, two-pronged legislation.

One proposal, to ban jail contracts, would be big.

The other... maybe not so much.

I've said it before: 287(g) is the red herring of local ICE collaboration.

From @liv-veazey.bsky.social and @sammellins.bsky.social:

Man Feds Killed in Minneapolis Was an Observer, Eyewitness Says The killing marked the second fatal shooting by federal agents in the city in less than a month.

BREAKING: We spoke to a witness of the fatal shooting in Minneapolis, who confirmed that the victim was an ICE-watch observer and not a target of immigration enforcement.

W/ @jsweetli.bsky.social via @theintercept.com theintercept.com/2026/01/24/m...

Never have I so badly wanted to throw my phone into the ocean.

www.404media.co/inside-ices-...

New York Keeps Children in Solitary Without Toilets, Suit Alleges Office of Children and Family Services facilities are violating state regulations governing the treatment of children in their care, the lawsuit claims.

*New in @nysfocus.bsky.social: Juvenile detention centers in New York are keeping youth in small cells without sinks or toilets, often for upwards of 23 hours a day, for days or weeks at a time, a lawsuit alleges.
nysfocus.com/2026/01/09/o...

The US press learned nothing from Bush and has learned nothing from Trump

U.S. Captures Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and Strikes Caracas, Trump Says Trump claimed early Saturday the U.S. had carried out a “large-scale strike” on Venezuela and captured the country's leader and his wife.

Trump claimed early Saturday that the U.S. had carried out airstrikes on Caracas and spirited Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro out of the country and taken him into custody, marking a dramatic escalation in his administration's regime change efforts. interc.pt/4aCyy6t

A Judge Dismissed a Prison Sex Abuse Lawsuit Over Typos—and the State Is Looking to Toss Hundreds More The state plans to ask a court to dismiss some 500 prison sexual assault lawsuits for not strictly abiding by filing requirements.

The state, represented by the office of Attorney General Letitia James, plans to ask judges to dismiss up to 500 prison sexual assault cases filed against it under the Adult Survivors Act, Hell Gate and New York Focus have learned.

"Sometimes stories make you think: wow, this belongs on screen."

Thank you Popshift for featuring two New York Focus stories in The IP List Index 2025.
iplist.org

Trump to Venezuela: Give us back our land.

The Martuscello Dynasty: Power and Patronage in New York Prisons This isn’t Daniel Martuscello’s first crisis. An investigation reveals how his family weathered one scandal after another on their road to dominating New…

nysfocus.com/2025/03/03/d...

2025 Winners & Losers of the Year Hello Zohran Mamdani and Julie Menin. Goodbye Andrew Cuomo and Eric Adams.

www.cityandstateny.com/personality/...

Extremely well put, @rebeccaclewis.bsky.social. It's been a hell of a year for the New York state prison system.

Read @cityandstateny.bsky.social's winners and big big losers of 2025⬇️

And read @nysfocus.bsky.social's "massive investigation" into the state prison system's ruling family ⬇️⬇️

9:03 : = propublica.org = Di PROPUBLICA Donate In public statements and congressional testimony, Rubio has repeatedly insisted that no one died because of cuts to U.S. foreign aid and that his staff had reinstated lifesaving operations. But ProPuSica found that those claims were a charade: Lifesaving programs remained on the books, but the flow of money didn't restart for months, if at all. Lewin blocked funding requests for programs like tuberculosis treatment in Tajikistan and emergency earthquake response in Myanmar, records show. This meant that dozens of supposedly "active" operations were dormant throughout most of the year. Rubio's advisers let other critical programs, which typically run on one-year grants, expire without renewing them. Few places were hit harder than South Sudan, the youngest and poorest country in the world, as well as one of the most dependent <> 凸 日G

Rubio has repeatedly insisted the govt is restarting life-saving foreign aid.

My colleagues found that’s bullshit.

www.propublica.org/article/usai...

By Brett Murphy and @annamaria.bsky.social

Inside Chicago’s Neighborhood ICE Resistance Residents have organized a formidable network to protect immigrant communities from Trump’s brutal deportation program. Their efforts are making a genuine difference.

It can feel like ICE agents are everywhere. That, presumably, is how they want it to feel. At the same time, more and more people who have never engaged in anything like these actions before are purposefully running toward the trouble. trib.al/zNVrQNn

State Prisons Are Turning Away Visitors After Scanners Pick Up Their… Guards demanded body scanners to cut down on contraband. Now they’re turning visitors away over their hygiene and medical supplies.

This story takes a lot of turns, and every single one of them is bad. Women denied the ability to visit loved ones because they have tampons. Guards unwilling to be screened to prevent contraband from getting in prison. Bad all the way down.

nysfocus.com/2025/12/06/d...

@chrisgelardi.bsky.social

Boat Strike Survivors Clung to Wreckage for Some 45 Minutes Before U.S. Military Killed Them “There are a lot of disturbing aspects. But this is one of the most disturbing.”

Boat Strike Survivors Clung to Wreckage for Some 45 Minutes Before U.S. Military Killed Them

“There are a lot of disturbing aspects. But this is one of the most disturbing.”

theintercept.com/2025/12/05/b...

Today, unionized nonprofit newsrooms across the country are standing shoulder-to-shoulder to demand that news industry leaders agree to common-sense guardrails around the implementation of artificial intelligence to protect the integrity, quality, and accuracy of our journalism.